Balloon Pop I

Balloon Pop II

Yesterday I made my first attempt at High Speed Flash Photography – which is a more accurate term than I used in my post on Monday. The key word being flash - since high speed photography really refers to any type of stop action photography, including for instance photographing race cars, sporting events, etc.

My attempt at high speed photography will use flash to capture an instance in time. And my first two attempts are shown to the right (or I should say, my first two attempts that actually captured anything!).

As you can see, the results leave room for a lot of improvement – but for a first session, I learned a lot.

I started by setting up my camera (Canon 20D) on a tripod, manually focused on an inflated balloon that I hung from a ceiling tile. My plan was to set the camera on ‘bulb’ setting in a totally dark room and use the sound detector I built (explained in my post on Monday) to trigger a flash at the point the balloon is popped. Using the bulb setting keeps the shutter open – since there is no light, no image is captured until the flash goes off. The duration of the flash is so short (typically around 1/30,000 second) that the sensor freezes the image as it captures it.

For my first test, I set the flash on a table below the balloon and pointed it up at the balloon, connected to the sound detector. With the lights off, I tested the flash by clapping my hands. As my eyes were adjusting to the dark, the flash went off, blinding me – I stumbled around the room completely blinded, looking for the light switch. It immediately occurred to me that I need to plan this better…

After several more attempts (using a low powered flashlight to get around), I settled on keeping the camera on manual, using f/22 with a 5 second exposure. The 5 second exposure gave me enough time to press the shutter button on the camera, find the balloon, and pop it with a needle. I dropped the idea of using the bulb setting, since it would require holding the shutter button down during the exposure and I didn’t have enough hands.

Spirit Dance

I also modified the time delay – as configured using the original instructions, the time delay from the time the balloon was popped until the flash was triggered was 0.5 seconds – an eternity in the life of a popped balloon. Changing capacitors allowed me to reduce the delay to 0.01 seconds.While still a long ways from where I’d like to get it, having the basic process worked out will now allow me to experiment and refine my methodology – I hope to be able to show better pictures over the next few days.

With some creative cropping, the popped balloons start to take on their own life. This balloon reminds me of a human form – with the knot representing the head, two legs descended and arms upraised.

Given the fluid motion of the balloon deflating, it has the feel of a spirit dancing to me. I expect to see new and interesting images in the days ahead as I experiment further with High Speed Flash Photography.

And I hope you join me on my journey.